


Safe

by TheNightFury



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Gen, So spoilers obviously, post Zero Hour
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-29
Updated: 2017-03-29
Packaged: 2018-10-12 11:40:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10490130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNightFury/pseuds/TheNightFury
Summary: Zeb didn't care how or why, all he cared about was his family was safe and alive. As everyone is being tended to, Zeb noticed a certain ex-agent has not been cared for and decides to do something about that.





	

It was a miracle as many people survived as had. They should all be dead, but they weren’t, and for that Zeb would be eternally grateful. Zeb glanced around at his team, his family they were all here safe and alive despite everything they went though. Their victory wasn’t without heavy loss, but in the end they were alive and they would recover and would keep fighting. In the end, that’s all that mattered. 

Ezra and Sabine where saying their goodbye’s as Sabine was sadly leaving them to help her people. Zeb understood, so well, but that didn’t make it any easier for them to see her go. He could only hope she’d be back with them on the Ghost for good. 

Chopper and AP-5 where with Red, bickering over how to safely reach Yavin while Kanan and Hera where off helping patch up the survivors. Zeb scanned the survivors, noting that Kallus was keeping a wide birth from the others, refusing to look any of them in the eye. As he made his way over to the ex-agent, he realized he still hadn’t been patched up.

Zeb winced at the memory of when he first saw Kallus walk onto the bridge of the Ghost, beaten within an inch of his life, exhausted and clearly in pain but refusing to show his pain in front of anyone. Why wasn’t he getting any sort of medical attention for his injuries? Zeb quickly made his way over to Kallus, surprised Kallus hadn’t noticed him yet. 

“Hey Kallus,” Zeb greeted, startling him. 

“Zeb,” Kallus greeted with a small nod of his head. “I’m glad to see you all survived.” 

“Yea, we’re lucky,” Zeb agreed. “But we all should be thanking you, without that warning things could have gone a lot worse.” Kallus’s face fell and Zeb’s words.

“No….you should hate me-“

“Kallus, I already told you, Lasan is behind me, you’re a different man now, better-“

“That’s not what I meant but it’s still true,” Kallus snapped. “Thrawn found your base because of me!” 

“No one blames you,” Zeb said. “No one can stand up to being tortured-“

“No,” Kallus said, running a hand through his disheveled hair in distress. “I was stupid- I overheard Thrawn saying he knew about the attack on Lothal so I tried to send a warning out but I realized the message was being jammed and Thrawn revealed he knew I was Fulcrum all along!” 

“If he was jamming the message how did we get your message?” Zeb asked. 

“I fought him and destroyed the device he was using to jam the signal but he then used the trajectory of the message to find your base,” Kallus said, voice breaking. “Because of me Thrawn found your base and nearly killed everyone-“

“That’s not your fault!” Zeb firmly said, grabbing Kallus’s shoulders. 

“But it is!” 

“You were trying to warn us that our mission would fail, you did the right thing!” Zeb firmly said. “Thrawn is smart, really smart. He would have just ambushed us on Lothal if you hadn’t sent the message!” 

“I just feel like there should have been something I could have done,” Kallus whispered, unable to look Zeb in the eye. 

“There wasn’t, trust me,” Zeb gently said, squeezing Kallus’s shoulders. “You’ve done so much for us. Thank you.” Kallus finally looked up at Zeb, shock written across his face. 

“Zeb I-…thank you….for everything,” Kallus eventually said. 

“Of course,” Zeb said. “Now come on, let’s get you patched up.”

“I’m fine,” Kallus assured. 

“You sure don’t look fine,” Zeb said. “Now come on or I will carry you.” 

“You wouldn’t!”

“Try me,” Zeb said, smirking down at Kallus. 

“Alright, fine you win,” Kallus groaned, reluctantly following Zeb. 

“I knew you’d see it my way,” Zeb said, smirking at him, the pair fell into a comfortable silence as Zeb led them into his room. Zeb gestured for Kallus to sit on the bed as Zeb pulled out a med kit. Kallus moved to take it from Zeb, but the lasat gently batted his hand away saying, “I’ve got it.”

“You probably have more important things to worry about,” Kallus protested. 

“Not at the moment,” Zeb said, opening the kit and grabbing something to clean Kallus’s cuts with. The pair fell silent again as Zeb gently cleaned Kallus’s wounds, trying to be gently as he cleaned Kallus’s wounds, fury filling him as he saw how badly Thrawn hurt Kallus. 

“I never got to thank you,” Kallus whispered, nervously wringing his hands. 

“For what?” Zeb asked, looking at him in confusion. 

“For everything,” Kallus said. “For saving me.”

“Technically that was Hera,” Zeb said, shrugging. 

“I mean saving me from myself,” Kallus clarified. “For showing me the truth before-” Zeb could only imagine where Kallus was trying to go with that. 

“I know you would have figured it out eventually,” Zeb gently said, trying to keep his mind from wandering to those dark places. 

“I’m flattered but I doubt it,” Kallus admitted, unable to look him in the eye. 

“Hey,” Zeb said, placing a hand on Kallus’s shoulder. “You’re a good man Kallus, you fought for what you thought was right but when you found out the truth you risked everything to try and fix it, so thank you.” Zeb squeezed Kallus’s shoulder as he looking up at Zeb. 

“You and your friends keep thanking me…after all I’ve done-”

“It’s in the past,” Zeb firmly said. “The man that you where died on Bahryn and a new man walked off that moon, a good man. One I would gladly die fighting beside.” Kallus stared at him in shock, opening and closing his mouth several times to respond, but unable to form any words. 

“You never cease to amaze me Zeb,” Kallus finally said, a weak smile on his face. Zeb grinned at him before sighing, 

“Now we have to get to the….less fun part of this.”

“What do you mean?” Kallus wearily asked. 

“I know Thrawn did a number on you, so I need you to take your shirt off so I can take a look.” Zeb informed him. 

“Right…” Kallus sighed, slowly peeling off his armor before yanking off his undershirt, hissing in pain as he moved. 

“Why did he do this to you?” Zeb growled when he saw the bruises that covered Kallus’s torso. Kallus humorlessly laughed and asked,

“Why wouldn’t they? I’m a traitor and Thrawn wanted to punish me.”

“That blue bastard will pay,” Zeb growled.

“Zeb you don-“

“I know I don’t, I want to,” Zeb firmly said. “And so will everyone else, I guarantee it.” 

“Thank you,” Kallus said, weakly smiling at him, clearly fighting exhaustion. 

“Let’s finish bandaging you up so you can get some sleep.” Zeb gently said, Kallus tiredly nodded, letting Zeb finish patching him up. Once finished Zeb said, “Lay down and get some sleep, I’ll have new clothes for you once you wake up.”

“Don’t toss it,” Kallus sleepily mumbled, reaching for his breast plate.

“Why? You don’t need it anymore,” Zeb asked, confused. Why did he want to hang onto something from his past?”

“It’d be a shame to waste good armor,” Kallus mumbled, ripping off his rank bar and smashing it to the ground, stepping on it for good measure. “Miss Wren could probably repaint it or something and give it to someone who really needs it.”

“That’s a good idea,” Zeb said, scooping up the armor. “Now get some sleep.”

“I don’t want to take your bed….” Kallus mumbled, letting out a yawn. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Zeb said, gently shoving him down so he was laying down. “Now sleep.” Kallus mumbled something before letting his eyes drift shut, quickly falling asleep. Zeb stood in the doorway, watching Kallus as he peacefully slept, wrapping his mind around the fact that everyone was safe. Kallus was with them, free from the Empire’s Iron grip, the rest of his crew was alive, they were safe, and Zeb would do everything in his power to keep them safe.


End file.
